Community Kitchen Program

Robel Mamo

The Community Kitchen Program (CKP) offers refugees and immigrants a free 10-week course that teaches the skills and provides the Safe Serve Certification necessary to secure quality employment in Charlotte-area restaurants. Having a strong skill set in food services is a powerful tool for increasing employability and earning potential. The CKP training concentrates on the essentials of the culinary arts.

GardHouse

Jonathan Gardner

GardHouse offers semester-long paid internships with local small businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations to underserved college students to increase employment opportunities and change the statistic that minority college graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed. GardHouse remains the only organization dedicated to serving this demographic in the Charlotte area, which houses over 37,000 students of color.

Juvenile Court Intervention Prevention Program

C. Maria Macon

The Juvenile Court Intervention Prevention Program of the Mecklenburg Council of Elders aims to reduce juvenile incarceration by providing alternatives to incarceration through a community-based intervention program. Trained volunteers serve as juvenile advocates in delinquency court to provide equity in treatment, alternative methods of case management and disposition, and community resources in support of juveniles and their families.

The Forum at Hope Haven

Barbara L. Thomas

The Forum at Hope Haven helps the people who help others. The Forum provides training, connection, community and collaboration opportunities for front-line nonprofit staff working with the most vulnerable people in our community. The Forum supports dedicated community workers so they can serve with confidence, competence, and compassion.

The Third Talk

John Van Arnam

The Third Talk® protects children from exposure to internet pornography by educating kids and parents together. Underage American children are the largest viewing demographic of internet pornography in the world. The Third Talk provides the practical real-world language necessary to initiate a pornography prevention conversation between parents and children plus the “how and why” to keep the conversation going throughout adolescence.